ONE cause and ONE effect for the homestead strike
Pittsburg, Pa., July 6—Pittsburg has had another experience with labor riots, and this time, as during the fearful
scenes which were witnessed during the railroad riots of 1877, blood has been spilled, life jeopardized, and
valuable property placed in danger. This time there was no destruction of property, but the mob was thoroughly
well organized and well disciplined, and had efficient officers at its head to conduct operations. The force
embraced all of the men employed in the extensive plants of the Carnegie Iron and Steel company at
Homestead, some eight miles east of Pittsburg. A battle, which, for bloodthirstiness and boldness of execution,
has never been excelled in actual warfare, was waged from 4 o’clock in the morning until 5 o’clock this afternoon,
and only ceased when the force of Pinkertons brought to the place to suppress the strike unconditionally
surrendered, leaving their arms in the barges in which they had been transported to the works.The riot today was the culmination of the trouble which has been brewing at Homestead for the past month. The Carnegie company
submitted a scale to govern their workmen in the steel plants, and announced that it was their ultimatum. The scale made a sweeping
reduction in the wages of the skilled men. It was officially announced that unless the terms were complied with before July 1 the
places of the men would be filled by others. This was followed by a preemptory refusal on the part of the company to recognize the
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers as such, or to confer with any committee of workmen short of an acceptive of the
terms offered. The men stated that they would never submit to the proposed reduction and announced a determination to resist any
effort on the part of the Carnegie company to start up the plants with non-union men. . . .
Yesterday the Carnegie company announced its intention to proceed to get ready to make repairs, and the officials asked the sheriff to
appoint deputies to protect the property. . . .
The developments today show that the application made for assistance of the sheriff was merely for the purpose of covering what was
intended to be a coup de main on the part of the Carnegie company, in clandestinely introducing a body of Pinkerton detectives into the
mill enclosure. The detectives had been rendezvoused some five or six mills below the city on the Ohio river, at which point two barges
had been prepared for them. . . .The barges were towed up the river by a towboat, but long before the Pinkerton men reached Homestead thousands of strikers had
gathered on the banks of the river ready to give them a warm welcome. When the boats attempted to land the workmen broke through
the fence surrounding the mills, and entrenched themselves behind piled up steel billets, prepared to resist the landing of the
detectives. By 4 o’clock in the morning an effort was made to land the detectives, but the strikers met them, and a fierce battle was
precipitated, both sides exchanging heavy volleys of shots. The detectives were all armed with Winchesters, but at the point where the
attempt to land was made there was a steep embankment, and they were compelled to go up in single file, and were soon driven back to
the boats by a steady fire from the shore.
The noise of the battle spread about the borough like wildfire, and thousands of men, women and children thronged to the river bank to
witness the fight in progress. The Pinkerton men were determined to land, and they poured volley after volley into the ranks of the
strikers, many of whom were stricken down by the bullets, some of them being fatally injured and others killed outright. As the battle
progressed the strikers took up a position behind breastworks hastily constructed of steel rails and billets, and from this place of safe
refuge were able to pick off the detectives as soon as they appeared on the decks of the boats.
The first and bloodiest of a series of industrial strikes in the 1890s, the Homestead Strike took place
at the Carnegie Steel Company plant in Homestead, Pa., in 1892. It was precipitated when company
manager Henry Clay Frick sought to impose a wage cut. When the Amalgamated Association of Iron,
Steel, and Tin Workers refused his terms and called a strike on June 29, Frick brought in about 300
Pinkerton detectives to run the plant. On July 6 an armed clash occurred between workers and
detectives, in which several were killed; soon afterward, the state militia was sent in. Under the
soldiers' protection, nonunion laborers manned the steel mills from July 12 to November 20, when the
strike collapsed. Frick’s success gravely weakened unionism in the steel industry, which was not
unionized successfully until the 1930s.
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Cause: The Homestead Strike was caused by the Carnegie Steel Company's decision to impose a significant wage cut for skilled workers, which led the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers to refuse the terms and call for a strike on June 29, 1892.
Effect: The strike ultimately collapsed under the presence of state militia and the replacement of striking workers with nonunion labor, leading to a severe weakening of unionism in the steel industry and making it difficult for unions to organize successfully until the 1930s.
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